The Cricket Revolution
by Hanita-chan
Summary: [RikuSora] Sora never did anything halfway, so when he started rescuing crickets, he did it with a revolution in mind. What he didn't know was that his revolution would lead him straight to love. [AU]
1. Chapter 1

**The Cricket Revolution**

_In which Sora rescues a defenseless insect and Tidus plays with crayons._

_-_

Life sucked for Sora.

Well, maybe not life, but the past week, for sure. Today in particular. So far, he'd managed to spill two shakes, break the blender, and shatter three dishes. He didn't know why they even _had_ dishes, because he worked at a beach-side snack shack, for god's sake, and they served people out of paper cups and cones. What were they doing hiding dishes in the back room like that? Privately, Sora suspected that someone had planted them there with Sora's big, clumsy hands specifically in mind. Probably Yuffie. She was always playing pranks like that.

Pranks designed to get him _fired_.

Things could have been worse, he supposed. For example, he could have been like that cricket over there, where some weirdo was feeding him to his pet iguana in the middle of the street. Who fed their iguanas in the middle of the street, anyway? Sora certainly wouldn't. He _liked_ crickets. He'd even had a pet one, once. In fact…

Wait a minute.

"Dude, what are you doing?" Sora asked, putting on his best appalled expression as he pushed his way over.

"I'm feeding my pet, what's it look like?" the almost-murderer asked with a scowl, one hand poised above his iguana's mouth where the last cricket dangled precariously. Sora looked at it sympathetically.

"You can't feed it that," he insisted, voice bordering on a whine, and reached out his hand.

"Yes, I can," the guy insisted, jerking the cricket away. "Watch."

"No, wait," Sora yelled, sending groceries scattering as a young girl behind him jumped and dropped her bags in surprise. "I'll, um..." He rifled through his pockets frantically. "I'll buy it from you, here!"

"...You want to buy my cricket?" he asked, staring in disbelief.

Sora nodded. "I have three nickels and a paper clip," he said and stuck out his hand.

"That won't even buy me a new cricket," he said with a glare. "No way."

"So you're going to _murder _it?" Sora asked, fidgeting anxiously. "Come on," he wheedled. "I'll give you a free shake from the shake shack down the street."

"Can I feed my iguana a paopu smoothie? No." He stared at Sora coolly and outstretched an expectant hand. "Cough up a dollar."

Sora sighed. "Fine." Casting a pitiful glance at the cricket, who was still clutched between the man's fingers, he hurriedly dug his wallet out of his back pocket and pulled out a dollar bill.

"Heh, thanks," said the man and pocketed the money with a grin. Without a backwards glance, he handed the cricket to Sora and shuffled off with his iguana.

Glaring at his back, Sora cradled the cricket in his hands and whispered to it conspiratorially, "See if I ever properly blend his shakes..."

Yeah, right. Like _that_ wouldn't get him fired.

The cricket, predictably, said nothing in response, and Sora was suddenly faced with the dilemma of where the hell to keep him. He doubted his pocket would be a very good place, as it would be doomsville for the cricket the first time he sat down without thinking…which rather defeated the purpose of saving him to begin with. Looking around for a moment, Sora ducked inside the nearest store on the street, where he quickly purchased a small tank. Actually, it was a goldfish bowl, but he refused to tell the cricket that, and mentally referred to it as a cricket tank from that point on.

"Dude, I got a pet," was the first thing he said when he walked inside his apartment, where his roommate Tidus was not-so-studiously making flashcards for his psychology exam the next day. The blond had a pile of textbooks spread across the coffee table and surrounding carpet, not to mention two economy packs of note cards and a myriad of papers. In the middle of it, Tidus was slumped with his head against his fist, obviously disgruntled by the thought of actually having to _work_ for his grades for once. True to slacker form, the card nearest to him showed a small doodle of a girl with flippy hair rather than any relevant information.

"Sora," he mumbled exasperatedly, "we're not allowed to keep any pets, you know that."

Rolling his eyes, Sora ignored him and held up the tank for closer inspection. "What should I name him?" he wondered.

Tossing down his pen with a little whine (which he would never admit to making), Tidus turned to him and muttered, "Sora, I told you, we—" he caught sight of the tank and stopped, pulling a face. "Wait, is that a _cricket_?"

"Yes, _he_ is a cricket," Sora said, sparing Tidus a frown. "I rescued him from the unforgiving jowls of death on my way home from work today."

"He?" Tidus repeated incredulously. "How do you even know it has a gender?" Note cards forgotten for the moment, he pushed himself off the couch and crossed the room to peer at the tank suspiciously. "I mean, how can you tell? It just looks buggy and gross to me."

"I can just tell, okay?"

"If you say so," Tidus said, looking dubious, and retreated back to his cushion.

"Tidus," Sora said suddenly, tapping on the glass again, "do you think he's lonely in there? He isn't, you know, cricketing. Or anything."

"Don't they only do that at night or something?" Tidus responded and crinkled his nose in thought.

"It _is_ night," Sora said, sounding desperate.

"... Right."

"What if he's sad?" Sora held the tank up at eye level, staring at the cricket with worried eyes. "I should find him some friends or something."

"It's the middle of winter, man," Tidus replied, rather unhelpfully.

"So? I'm just going to the park," Sora said, misinterpreting the statement. "I'll bring a jacket," he added as an afterthought.

"That's not what I meant," Tidus sighed and resisted the urge to smack his forehead.

"I'll be back in a few," Sora said, oblivious, and hastily tugged on his coat and grabbed the cricket tank. "Call my cell if you need me."

"You don't _have_ one," Tidus started to reply, but his roommate had already slammed the door and bounded down the steps cheerfully.

_Typical_, Tidus thought and grumpily returned to his flashcards.

-

One hour later, Sora had found three earthworms, a spider, and a developing case of hypothermia (or so he'd told himself in a sudden, unexpected bout of self-pity). "Don't worry," he said, looking at the cricket tank with an unnaturally fond expression. "I'll find another one. After all, you had to come from somewhere, right?"

"You know, talking to yourself is the first sign of insanity," said an unknown voice from behind.

Yelping, Sora jumped to his feet, somehow only stumbling twice, and turned to face the speaker with an unguarded blush. "Uh, no," he said, motioning wildly at the tank at his feet. "You see, I was talking to my cricket."

The stranger, a young man with silver hair and unidentifiable eyes shrouded by the poor lighting, tilted his head and stared. "What are you doing in the middle of the park at—" he paused to push up his sleeve and glance at his watch "—eight thirty, talking to a cricket tank?"

"Finding more crickets," Sora explained matter-of-factly.

The silver-haired boy raised an eyebrow. "You could just buy some."

"That would defeat the purpose," he said with clenched fists.

"... The purpose of what?"

"Of rescuing them."

The stranger smirked. "From their natural habitat," he said dryly.

"From the unforgiving jowls of death, okay?!" Sora scowled, shoving his hands into his pockets as he glanced at his cricket, now chirping placidly inside his home. His expression softened.

"Define 'unforgiving jowls of death,' please," said the other boy, undeterred by Sora's almost intimidating enthusiasm for his cause.

"From people who want to feed them to their pets," said Sora with a gusty, almost exasperated sigh. He listened carefully for the song of more crickets while trying to watch the other boy as he crept through the grass (when he'd still lived at home, his mother had insisted it was rude not to look at the people to whom he was speaking). "I bought this one from a guy with an iguana, and now he needs friends to keep him—" his voice broke off into an undignified yell as he slipped, windmilling, into a pond he'd forgotten even existed in the park.

Stifling a laugh, the silver-haired boy walked to the edge of the pond, where he leaned forward and asked, "Shit, are you okay?" Biting his lip to, Sora assumed, hide a smile, he held out his hand. "That's what you get for wandering around the park at night."

"Are you going to molest me or something?" Sora distrustfully eyed the proffered hand and discreetly shrank away.

"Actually," he said with a look of increasing amusement, "I was planning on helping you out of that pond, but if you'd rather stay..." He let the sentence trail off and slowly began pulling back his hand.

"Misery loves company," Sora exclaimed, just before he grabbed the other boy's hand and pulled, sending him ungracefully into the water, headfirst.

"…Thanks," he said sarcastically, once he'd surfaced, and looked at his mud-streaked, previously pristine shirt with a wet, disgusted look. "And to think I actually considered helping your cause."

"I slipped again," Sora said with a mischievous grin. "Really."

"Right," said the other boy, rolling his eyes as he stood. "This time, you can help yourself out." He placed both hands on the edge of the pond and, with a faintly revolted expression, pulled himself out with ease.

Sora followed clumsily behind him, climbing over the side and muddying his jeans beyond repair. Once he was out of the water, he wringed the water from his hair with both hands and asked in a casual voice, "So, what are you doing in the park at night, anyway?"

"I was on my way back to campus," he said, turning to smirk at Sora as he flicked a wet piece of silver hair behind his ear. "A much saner excuse than yours, if you ask me."

Sora kindly ignored that. "You go to the university?" he asked, bending to scoop up his cricket tank.

"Yeah." He glanced at Sora. "What about you?"

"I, uh," Sora stuttered, not about to tell this stranger that he was too poor to afford college without a scholarship (which he absolutely did not have the grades to acquire), and he scratched the back of his neck awkwardly. "I mean—I was..." There was an embarrassed pause, during which he coughed and scraped together a plausible excuse. "I'm taking a year off to save money," he said, which was sort of the truth, anyway. Half-truths still counted, right?

"And to save crickets, apparently," noted the other boy with a smirk and a raised eyebrow. Nodding at Sora's tank, he asked, "Any luck?"

"Well." _No_, Sora wanted to say, but that sounded lame. "I just started today," he said instead, which actually didn't sound much better, now that he thought about it. Crap.

"Right," he murmured with another glance at his (thankfully waterproof) watch. "You know, the pet supply store is still open. You can get some there."

"I told you, that defeats the purpose," said Sora, shaking his head furiously.

"No, it doesn't. They're more likely to be eaten by an iguana, since they're being sold there specifically for that purpose." He smiled faintly. "Come on. I'll pay."

"Hey, you're right!" Sora grinned and bounced on his heels, then paused suddenly as a thought occurred to him. "Will you really pay?"

"Yeah, sure," he said and waved a hand vaguely as he began to walk, presumably to the pet store. "They can't be that expensive. They're _crickets_."

"Well, this one in the tank cost a dollar," Sora declared and followed close behind the other boy, lifting the tank to show it off.

"You got ripped off," the other boy snorted.

"So?" Sora tapped the glass fondly. "One life saved."

"Does it have a name?" he asked as they entered the store, pausing to wipe his feet courteously on the doormat.

"No," Sora said and completely disregarded the mat. He tracked water and mud across the floor as he looked around, oblivious to the glaring eyes of the clerk. "I left before Tidus could help me name it. I don't know why I asked him, because he doesn't even like crickets." He glanced over his shoulder. "Any ideas?"

"Riku is obviously the best choice," he said, heading for the front desk.

"What kind of name is _that_?" He went to follow him, but paused as he passed a cage of mice. He waved cheerfully.

"Mine."

"... oh." Sheepishly, he pulled himself away from the rodents and traipsed over to the desk. And Riku. "I'm Sora."

"Nice to meet you," Riku said, smiling briefly before he tapped on the counter to get the clerk's attention. "Excuse me."

Vaguely disgruntled by customers so close to closing time, the clerk glanced up from his flimsy paperback book and said, "Hm?"

"I'd like—" he paused to give Sora's small cricket tank a thoughtful glance "—five crickets, please."

Sighing, the clerk rang them up and passed over a clear, plastic bag full of air and crickets, while Sora excitedly poked at the bird cages. When Riku gave them the bag, he yelped indignantly and quickly opened the bag and tipped them inside the tank to meet their new friend.

"Thanks, man!" Sora gushed happily and held up the tank to grin at his new pets. "I should start up a collection fund, or something. To save crickets."

"Good luck with that," Riku snorted. "Not to be a pessimist, but I don't think many people care about the collective fate of crickets."

"We'll see about _that_," Sora muttered and edged towards the door. "I'll catch you on the flip side, Mr. Cricket Fate Pessimist Guy."

"I prefer Riku," he said with a smug-looking smirk.

The clerk rolled his eyes and interrupted their conversation. "We're closing."

"And we're leaving," Riku said, and turned to look at Sora, who was staring at the store's cricket cage with a determined expression. Sensing trouble, Riku took him by the elbow and steered him out of the store.

"What was that for?" Sora demanded and pulled his arm away, shivering as the air from outside hit him at full force.

"Just keeping you from rescuing anything else."

"Hmph." Pouting, Sora turned his face away and crossed his arms stubbornly over his chest. "I wasn't going to."

"Right, of course not," said Riku, rolling his eyes. As they reached the end of the sidewalk and waited for a traffic light to turn green, he glanced at the street sign and made a thoughtful noise.

"What?" Sora asked, turning to glance at him again.

"Didn't know I could take this way to the dorms," he said, stepping off the curb and into the street as the light turned. "I'd better leave now. It was nice meeting you, Sora."

"You too," said the brunette, holding the cricket cage tightly as he watched Riku round the corner and walk away. Smiling, he waved and ran the rest of the way home.

-

"Tidus, I had the greatest idea," Sora shouted as he burst excitedly into their apartment.

"You found a way to help me cheat on my midterm without getting caught?" Tidus asked, looking up excitedly from his pile of note cards.

"Nope! I found something better." Sora paused to set the cricket tank on the floor and began peeling off his soggy jacket.

"You're kidding me, right?" The blond stared at the tank in disbelief, rising to his feet to point obnoxiously. "You found _more_?"

"Five more," Sora told him brightly. Grinning, he bounced over to the couch and took a seat, paying no mind when Tidus frowned and scooted away.

"You're dripping all over the carpet," he noted with a crinkled nose.

"I fell in a pond," Sora explained, not to be derailed. "But listen! I'm starting a Cricket Relief Fund! Isn't that great?"

"What were you doing in the pond?"

"I told you, I fell," he said with a shrug, then pointed to the stack of unused note cards. "Mind if I use these?"

"Get a towel first."

Sora made a vague noise and pushed the blond's textbooks off the table. "Where are the pens?"

"Out of ink." Tidus nudged a box of crayons in his direction. "We've only got these."

"That'll work," Sora said brightly as he selected a crayon. "What d'you think should go on the front?"

"A picture of you getting a towel," Tidus muttered and glared somewhat unsuccessfully.

"Huh?"

"You're ruining my flashcards!" he complained.

"Relax, I'll clean up in a minute," Sora mumbled distractedly, ripping a note card in two. With his tongue poking out of the corner of his mouth, he dutifully began to doodle a rather poor rendition of a cricket nimbly evading the jaws of an iguana.

"You don't look busy to me."

"I'm in the middle of starting a revolution!" Sora said, waving the blue crayon importantly.

"Fine, I'll move," Tidus grumbled. Scooping up his textbook, some note cards, and a red crayon, he waved at Sora with his free hand and started towards his bedroom. "I'll see you in the morning."

"G'night," Sora called cheerfully, and redoubled his efforts to create Cricket Relief Fund membership cards.

It was going to be another late night.


	2. Chapter 2

**The Cricket Revolution**

_In which Sora learns about acronyms and Riku buys note cards._

-

Despite a bladder so full it physically hurt, Sora was determined to enjoy his only day of the week to sleep in. And by enjoying it, he meant not getting out of bed until his bedside clock had ticked all the way to 12:00 in the afternoon – not 11:00, not 11:30, not even 11:59, but _12:00_. Never mind that it was currently 9:45, because at that moment Sora honestly did not care. His blankets were warm, his dreams had been good, and he was still wrapped up in that sweetly comforting feeling that accompanied the first few wakening moments of each day. Better than that, he had the day off, leftover Chinese in the fridge, and—

"SORA!"

—er. And a screaming roommate, apparently. Nearly wetting his pants as Tidus threw open the door to his bedroom, Sora scrambled to sit up in bed and furiously scrubbed at his eyes to wipe away any remnants of sleep.

"Tidus? What's wrong?"

"Your stupid _pets_ are what's wrong," shouted the blonde, and it was at that moment Sora noticed he was clutching his very empty cricket tank.

"Crap!" he yelped, suddenly out of bed and very much awake, and lept across the room to grab the tank with both hands and peer inside. "Where did they go?"

"To eat my Psychology text," Tidus replied bitterly.

Sora blinked. "Excuse me?"

"It fell apart when I picked it up this morning," his roommate explained, and stepped to the side so Sora could peer down the hallway in the morning light, at the end of which was a pile of papers formerly known as _Social Psychology, Third Edition_.

Bewildered, Sora looked down into the empty cricket tank, then at the paper heap, then back down at the cricket tank. "What happened?" he asked eventually.

"Hell if I know," Tidus snapped, "but all the glue binding is gone. Who knew crickets were such little monsters?"

"Hey!" Sora said defensively. Next to a pile of laundry (mostly boxers and dirty socks), he carefully set down the cricket tank, and straightened to assume what he thought was a very intimidating pose – hands on hips, shoulders back, chin raised. It had worked for his mother, anyway. "Don't blame them! Crickets are supposed to be _good luck_!"

Raising one eyebrow in disbelief, Tidus barked back, "Good luck? Are you kidding?"

"No," the brunette sniffed and stepped forward to shield the tank protectively, despite the fact that it was currently quite empty. "You must just have bad karma or something."

"Bad karma… bad… bad _karma_?" Tidus sputtered. "If anyone here has bad karma, it's _you_, Mr. Breaks Everything In Sight!" At Sora's half-surprised, half-offended look, Tidus cut back in, "Yeah, Yuffie told me. And she also says that Wakka's _this close_ to firing you—" here he held his thumb and forefinger mere centimeters apart "—so you'd better get your act together, Sora!"

Glancing down the hall once more, Sora's eyes lingered pointedly on the sad remains of Tidus' Psychology text, then drew back to examine the blonde's messy hair and wild eyes. His mouth was still open in shock and indignation, but he hastily clicked it shut and decided it would probably be better for his health if he didn't say anything. Instead, he merely nodded and took two steps back, closing the door with his foot.

It was going to be a long day.

-

After debating the merits of a shower and clean pajamas (not to mention waiting for his enraged roommate to leave the vicinity), Sora trudged into the living room in dirty boxers and a white T-shirt to begin the long and arduous search for his lost crickets. He was a little sad that they'd escaped – he'd honestly thought they'd be happier there in their cute little tank, rather than dangling above hungry iguanas all day, but crickets would be crickets, he supposed, and crickets needed a lid if one wanted them to stay in one place. Which Sora did.

"Dammit," Sora sighed as he overturned the last lumpy couch cushion and turned his sights to the curtains. Did crickets like curtains? They certainly liked expensive school books, but Sora was afraid to investigate Tidus' other books for fear of the worst. Just as the brunette had decided to look behind the TV, his stomach growled, loudly, and he pulled back with a grin. After all, he hadn't checked the cupboards yet.

"Let's see if they're in the cereal," he said to himself, and pulled down a box of something crunchy and chocolatey. He inspected each piece individually with his mouth before deciding that they were indeed no crickets hiding in the now-empty box. Too bad, he thought, and scooted to the fridge to see if the crickets had somehow managed to invade his leftover Chinese...

About an hour later, Sora had deduced that the crickets were not in the Chinese, or the mint chocolate ice cream, or the hard pretzels, or the now half-empty box of cookies Tidus had unsuccessfully attempted to hide at the very back of the top cupboard. He had yet to check any of the muffins sitting on the counter, and he briefly considered inspecting them until his stomach let out a strained gurgle, and he decided he couldn't possible look anywhere else edible for the time being.

"In that case," Sora murmured, rubbing his bulging stomach, "I might as well grab a shower."

To his surprise, stepping under the shower head revealed two crickets hopping around the bath tub.

"You guys!" he hissed and stooped to catch them. They jumped between his fingers, and he nearly hit his head on the puke green wall tiles as he surged forward to catch them. He cupped them carefully between his hands and held them close to his chest, whispering furiously, "I'm in so much trouble because of you guys! This time, stay in your tank, okay?"

He felt them jump twice against his palm, which he took as an agreement. Tipping them carefully back into their tank in the living room, he placed the TV guide booklet over the top to keep them from escaping, then paused, realizing they would probably eat it and escape anyway. Tapping his chin for a few moments in consideration, he eventually decided to turn the tank upside down on the coffee table, trapping them beneath the thick glass.

"I'll be right back," he told them, tapping the tank fondly with his index finger. "I'll find you a lid after I clean up and brush my teeth, okay?" The crickets hopped frantically against their tank. "You won't suffocate," he soothed. "Just calm down and I'll be right back. I promise."

Before they could hop around pathetically and make him feel guilty, Sora dashed into the bathroom and took the fastest shower in the history of hygiene. Because while he had assured the crickets they wouldn't suffocate, he wasn't actually one hundred percent sure of that fact, and he didn't want to be responsible for a cricket genocide first thing in the morning on his day off.

Despite his promise, Sora did not find a lid for them right away. What he did find was another cricket hopping around underneath the couch next to his sandals. He stuck the little guy under the tank with his brothers and sisters before venturing into the kitchen once again to grab a corinder from a cabinet. When he came back into the main room, he flipped the tank over and placed the corinder over the top, nodding with self-satisfaction.

"That should work." Grinning to himself, he slipped on the sandals he'd found under the couch, grabbed his stack of CRF cards from the coffee table, and headed to campus for some serious cricket saving.

-

Sora was not very good at raising funds. Actually, that was an understatement. Sora was absolutely hopeless at raising funds, and after standing in the university commons for an hour - he glanced up at the clock tower – actually, an hour and a _half, _he had only managed to gather a rather unimpressive seventy-five cents. It was cold, and his stupid hoodie wasn't doing anything to help block the cutting wind, and he was miserable, and he was pretty sure that it was around lunchtime, because his stomach was growling, and _was that a vending machine? _

Vending machines were Sora's weakness. He knew that they housed the mother—no, _the holy grail_ of all corn chips, and he also knew that he just happened to have exactly the right amount of money for a glorious bag of cheesy, corn chippy goodness, and, well, who would know if he splurged a little bit on himself?

It wasn't his fault. He had a very fast metabolism, and he had to eat every two hours, or he was pretty sure that he would pass out. He had never really tested the theory, but the point was, Sora was hungry, and the vending machine was _right there, _and…

Sora loved cheesy Doritos, dammit, and it wasn't like the crickets didn't already owe him.

"Sora?"

The brunette flinched a little, coloring with guilt, and turned to squint up at a familiar face.

"What are you doing on campus?" the silver-haired boy asked, eyebrows raised.

Sora desperately carded through his memories for a name, a _name, _Christ, what was that kid's name? "I'm collecting money for the Cricket Relief Fund. Want to, uh, help hand out cards, Rrrrrr…" What was it? Ricky? _Rico_?

"Riku," the other boy finished with a smirk. "And sure."

Sora enthusiastically crammed the remainder of his index cards into the taller boy's hands, ignoring the few that fell victim to the wind. "Awesome, thanks!"

"But you might want to rethink that acronym," Riku noted, flipping the cards over in his hands as he inspected the poorly-illustrated cricket and organization name, which had been abbreviated to CRF.

"Huh?" Sora peered around Riku's hands to stare at the cards. "Why? It stands for Cricket Relief Fund."

"Or chronic renal failure," he said, somehow managing to remain perfectly straight-faced.

Staring at the acronym, Sora had the sudden desire to either crawl underneath a very big rock or throw himself off a thousand-foot cliff. "…oh," he mumbled, blushing in soul-crushing embarrassment. "I didn't know."

"Yeah. So, you might want to change that."

"Yeah." Frowning at the cards, he quickly took them from Riku and unceremoniously tossed them into the nearest trash can. "Maybe that's why no one would donate. I guess I'm going to have to make new cards."

"I guess I'm going to have to agree with you," Riku said with a smirk and adjusted the strap of his messenger bag.

Sora paused thoughtfully and crossed his arms behind his head. "Too bad I'm out of note cards."

The older boy had to bite the inside of his cheek to keep from laughing, and nudged Sora in the direction of the student store. "Well, let's go buy some note cards, then."

"How many people are going to know about renal failure, anyway?" Sora grumbled, kicking at imaginary rocks. "How do _you_ know about renal failure?"

"Chronic renal failure," Riku corrected. "And I was a pre-med major for a few weeks."

"Really? What's your major now?"

"Philosophy, but I'm thinking about switching to Chemistry."

"You're pretty flighty, aren't you?"

Riku looked mildy offended. "At least I'm going to college."

Sora stopped in the middle of the sidewalk, ignoring the jostling behind him as several people behind him smashed into one another. "Hey, I told you, I'm taking a year off to save money. If you're going to look down on me, then I can just make the note cards myself."

The taller boy blinked, surprised. "Er, sorry. That was uncalled for."

"It's okay." Sora instantly began to feel embarrassed, and crammed both hands deep into his pockets. "I shouldn't have gotten mad, I guess. I mean, you're buying me note cards and stuff, and I've barely known you a day, so obviously you're a pretty cool guy." He paused for a moment, heat creeping up his neck in a blush. "You are paying for the note cards, right? Because I didn't bring any money with me."

The corner of Riku's lips twitched upwards. "Yeah, sure, I'll buy them, and I'll help you make them for as long as I can." He glanced down at his watch. "I've got about two hours until my next class."

"You sure do check your watch a lot. You shouldn't be so uptight." Sora flung the door to the campus bookstore open and bounded over to a large display of colorful markers. "Ooh, a 48 pack…"

"And you shouldn't be so unstructured," Riku laughed, edging Sora towards the note cards.

"Well, you shouldn't be so tall," the brunet grumbled as he stumbled a little, "and, uh, gray-haired. And – oh, cool!" He groped for a pack of exclamation-shaped post-its.

"_Silver_. My hair is _silver_," Riku said stiffly, as though it were a touchy subject for him.

"Whatever." The brunet turned his treasure over in his hands, grinning obliviously.

Riku rolled his eyes and snatched the post-its from Sora, ignoring his hiss of displeasure. "Come on—" he tossed them back on the shelf "—let's get the note cards and go. Do you want colored or plain?"

He clapped. "Colored!"

"How did I know?" Riku mumbled, picking up a fluorescent pack of note cards. "Anything else?"

Sora stared longingly back at the colored markers near the entrance, but shook his head, deciding that he had already mooched enough already. "Nah, I'm good." He slid cleanly into line behind Riku. "Thanks a lot for paying for this."

Riku rolled his eyes. "It's fine. It's only like, two dollars. I think I can survive."

"Still, it's really nice. I'll give you a free shake or something. Do you like paopu fruit?"

"It's my favorite." A lazy smirk spread across his face. "You know what they say about paopu fruit…"

Sora's nose wrinkled. "That it has entirely too many seeds to blend properly?"

Riku laughed. "Actually, I was thinking more about—"

"Will this be all for you?" the cashier interrupted unknowingly.

"Yes. Thank you." Riku held out the appropriate amount of money, and turned to finish what he was saying, "Anyway…"

But Sora had already snatched the notecards from the cashier, and was bouncing on his toes excitedly.

"Er. You okay?"

"Yeah! Let's hurry up and draw the logos!" Sora had already pulled the plastic off of the cards, and dragged Riku back outside. "This is so exciting! How are you at drawing crickets?"

Riku stumbled after him, a warm feeling spreading from his fingertips to the pit of his stomach. "Pretty good, actually."

He couldn't help but grin. "Let me guess. You were an art major once?"

"Yeah." Riku grinned back. "For an entire month."

"Sweet." Sora mashed the crosswalk button, shifting from one foot to the next, Riku's fingertips still clutched unthinkingly in his own. "Would it be okay if we went to your place? Tidus kind of wants to skin me alive right now."

"Sure, I guess." Riku tugged Sora towards his dorm. "Is Tidus your roommate?"

"Yeah. He's pissed off because the crickets ate one of his text books."

Riku froze. "…you didn't bring any crickets with you, did you?"

"No, they're all at home. Somewhere." He looked sheepish. "I kind of lost them."

Riku's eyebrows shot up. "You're not very good at this whole cricket rescue thing, are you?"

"It's not my fault they refused to stay in their tank," he argued.

Riku clucked his tongue thoughtfully. "It was more of a bowl, really."

"It was a tank!"

"It was a _bowl_, and I'll bet you didn't even put a lid on it." Riku had been half-teasing, but Sora's face faded into a guilty expression, and the silver-haired boy had to bite back a groan. "No wonder they escaped."

"It's not like anybody mentioned that I would need one." He gave Riku a meaningful stare, but it fell apart when he realized that he was still holding Riku's fingers like a two-year old. He pulled back, smiling a little in a mixture of embarrassment and apology, and crossed his arms awkwardly across his chest.

"It's sort of common sense," the boy mumbled, herding Sora through a set of glass doors and into the hallway of what Sora assumed was his dormitory.

"Maybe for _some_ people," he huffed. "You probably majored in Cricketology or something."

"Oh, yes, definitely. Cricketology." Riku rolled his eyes. "What do you want to change your acronym to?"

"I dunno. What about Cricket Rescue Fund?"

"…that's the same acronym with a different name."

"Uh. Cricket Relief Foundation?"

"Same thing again." Riku bent over to sign Sora into the dorm, glancing back down at his watch again.

"Oh." Sora colored, "Well, you're the smart one. Why don't you think of something?"

"Fine." Riku chewed thoughtfully on the end of his pen, searching the walls and collection of flyers for various university events for inspiration. "How about the Campus Cricket Alliance?"

"…dammit." Sora flicked his bangs out of his eyes and sighed. "That's pretty good."

Riku smirked, throwing the pen down and crossing over to the elevator. "Why thank you," he murmured and pushed the button for the fifth floor.

When the door opened, the two were nearly trampled by a blond boy who shoved past them in the hallway to pin a brunet in a painful-looking headlock. The darker-haired one yelled something that sounded suspiciously like "PUBERTY BOY!" and Sora turned to Riku to say something, or at least to hide behind him, but Riku seemed to be paying it no attention. He brushed past the pair without a second glance and calmly pulled out his keys and began unlocking his door. Sora lingered by the elevator doors for a moment, staring in slack-jawed awe as the brunet pretended to suffer in stony silence while his hand crept steadily to form a fist.

"Umm," Sora said, dashing to catch up with his silver-haired escort, "shouldn't you do something?"

"About them?" Riku asked and glanced backwards just in time to witness the brunet punch the blond squarely in the jaw. "Nah. They're always like that."

"But—" Sora trailed off with a gasp as the blond growled and punched the brunet in the nose, resulting in two respectively dischordant shouts of pain and victory. Blanching, Sora turned to Riku frantically and said, "Holy crap! Is he okay? How do you know that guy?"

"He's fine," said Riku calmly as he opened his door. "And he's my roommate."

Staring, Sora stood in front of Riku's doorway and refused to enter out of sheer disapproval. "Shouldn't you go help him? His nose is bleeding!"

"Cloud—the RA, I mean, can handle it." Waving his hand dismissively, Riku set his keys on his sparsely-decorated desk and pulled open the top drawer to produce two packs of pens. Sora suspected he wasn't exactly the type to stash away crayons and markers or anything like that. "Besides," continued the silver-haired boy, "this happens practically every day. Last month they tackled each other into the AC unit and had to go to the emergency room."

"Are you serious?" Sora asked, beginning to believe that Riku wasn't as asshattish as he'd originally seemed, especially now that a spiky-haired boy with yellow hair, presumably Cloud, had stormed out of a nearby room and begun heatedly bitching out everyone in a ten foot radius. As discreetly as possible, Sora stepped into Riku's room and partially closed the door in order to avoid taking his share of the RA's rage.

"Yeah. Didn't you see the matching scars?"

"Wow," Sora mumbled, poking his head outside one last time to look down the hall where the spiky-haired boy was still lecturing the two boys. Sure enough, the fighters had identical slashes across their faces. "That's intense."

"To say the least," laughed the other boy from his place at his desk, which was now covered with a bright array of colored Sharpies and highlighters. "Do you have the note cards?"

"Huh?" Sora blinked. "Oh, yeah. Here." After rifling briefly through his pockets, he handed the other boy the stack of note cards.

"Cool." Riku smiled slightly and uncapped a black Sharpie to begin outlining a stylized cricket on the front of a fluorescent pink note card.

"Yeah," Sora said, unwittingly grinning back as he sat on Riku's bed to watch him work.


	3. Chapter 3

**The Cricket Revolution**

_In which Axel, Roxas, and Kairi are introduced._

-

Kairi did not like being stood up. Nobody did, really, but she hated it more than most people. It implied negligence, thoughtlessness, and, worst of all, a lack of interest in seeing her. Overall, she thought it was one of the worst things a guy could ever do to their girlfriend, and the second she found Sora, she was going to tell him exactly what she thought of his behavior.

So why, then, was she smiling and waving politely as he pushed his way through the crowded airport to meet her, two hours after he was supposed to pick her up in baggage claim? With a tall, slim boy tagging along behind him and looking entirely too smug about Sora's fingers grasping his wrist as the lively brunet tugged them through the teeming masses of cranky travelers?

"Kairi," he gasped, bracing his hands on his knees as he recovered from running all the way from the car to baggage claim. "I'm so sorry. I thought you said 6:30, not 4:30, and then I didn't have money to buy gas, so Riku had to drive me—" here, the tall boy with silver hair lifted his hand, fingers spread in a wave, still looking far too pleased with the situation for Kairi's tastes "—and I can't believe I forgot the right time and I'm really sorry and will you please forgive me?"

She couldn't help but smile at the cute picture Sora presented, his hands steepled together in front of his face, one eye closed as he grinned sheepishly at her, almost as though he were afraid to face her with both eyes open. "Of course I forgive you," she said softly, handing him the larger of her two bags to carry.

"I still feel terrible," he mumbled even as he took her bag and began shuffling toward the far-off parking garage. Kairi tried not to notice the way he hadn't touched her hand or even asked for a hug, and she adjusted the strap of her purse with a little huff and inconspicuously slid into the open walking space between Riku and the moping brunet.

"It's fine," she stressed with a pleasant smile, lightly brushing her fingertips along Sora's shoulder. Turning, he graced her with a warm grin and briefly leaned into her touch, just before he caught a glimpse of the escalators leading to the upper levels of the parking lot from the corner of his eye. He let out an "Oooh!" of excitement before galloping to ride on the moving railing, dragging Kairi's suitcase behind him. Beside her, Kairi heard Riku's soft chuckle, and she turned to him, careful not to make any judgments based on the borderline smoldering look she'd seen him shoot Sora as he'd run off. (It was difficult, but she thought she pulled it off rather well.)

"So," she began eventually, "your name is Riku?"

"Yep. Nice to meet you," he said with a friendly grin, reaching out to shake hands. His fingers were warm and firm, and she felt herself slowly returning the smile. "It's Kairi, right?" he asked.

"Yeah." Feeling somewhat better about the situation, she brushed her bangs away from her forehead and breathed a little lighter. "Nice to meet you, too."

And then Sora fell off the railing and the moment was broken, Riku and Kairi breaking off to laugh and trail behind the brunet as he rushed to catch Kairi's luggage, still on the escalator stairs. It took a little running and a lot of giggling, but they eventually caught her runaway luggage and managed to make it into the parking lot without any further incident. Mostly, anyway.

"So, Sora," Kairi began as she loaded her bags into the trunk of Riku's car, "you still haven't asked me how my trip was."

Sora tripped over his own feet and hit his head on the passenger door, collapsing onto the dirty concrete floor with a decidedly pained and somewhat sheepish look. "Um, what?" he asked with a wince, rubbing his injured head.

"Careful, those things can come out of nowhere," Riku advised sagely, smirking just a little as he took Sora's hand and heaved him to his feet. Kairi's eyes narrowed at the way Riku's fingertips lingered on Sora's knuckles, almost tenderly.

Clearing her throat, she tried to curb the slow fizzle of jealousy winding its way down into her stomach and continued with forced lightheartedness, "My family visit." She'd been out of town for the past week and a half visiting her parents and ill grandmother.

"Oh! But weren't you there to…" He trailed off, looking embarrassed, and tried again in a softer voice, "I mean, if things weren't that great, you know, with," and he waved his hand, not wanting to say _possibly dying relatives_ or anything terribly insensitive. "I didn't want to bring up any bad memories."

"Oh," she said, suitably warmed by his thoughtfulness, even if it had been poorly executed, and smiled brightly. "Well, it was pretty good, actually. My mom says hi, by the way."

"Cool. Tell her I say hi back," he grinned, and then yelled a split-second later as he put his hand on the door handle, "Shotgun!"

"You don't have to say shotgun if you're already in the seat or touching the door," Riku commented, to which Sora promptly stuck out his tongue.

Kairi blinked throughout the entire exchange. Although inwardly she was quite annoyed that her boyfriend wasn't going to sit with her, outwardly she managed a small laugh and slid into the backseat. "You never change, Sora."

"I try not to." Settling into his seat, Sora immediately stooped over, digging around the floor space, and sat back up with a pile of note cards in his lap. He shuffled through them for a moment before stopping and flicking it into the seat next to Kairi. "Here, have one!"

"Um," she said, picking up the card, and flipped it over to view a rather impressive illustration of a cricket and a flowing ink banner that read CCA. "What's this for?"

"Campus Cricket Alliance," Sora replied, twisting around in his seat with a bright grin. "It's my latest project."

"Wow, that's—" And then she had to stop and jerk in surprise, because Riku had just punched Sora in the shoulder, not even bothering to look at him as he backed out of the parking space and started driving away from the airport.

"Oww," the brunet moaned dramatically. He practically threw himself at Riku, grumbling and pulling at his hair, "Hey, that wasn't nice! You know I wasn't gonna take all the credit for it! My next sentence was going to be, And hey, you know what's pretty cool? Riku thought of the name all by himself, because he's awesome. But did you let me get that far? Noooo, because you're a mean old bastard!"

"So," Kairi interjected in amusement, "this is what you've been up to while I've been gone?"

"Pretty much!" And just like that, his attention was back on her again, all smiles and charm, and she nearly melted beneath the force of his grin.

Tapping the side of her chin, she gave him a little smirk and said, "Well, I _guess_ making Campus Cricket Alliance cards was worth missing two of my phone calls yesterday…"

Sora's jaw dropped. "What? I didn't – Tidus didn't tell me!"

"It's okay," she laughed, trying to wave it off and convince herself that? it really was. She was just jealous that Sora had a new friend, that was all – which was _ridiculous_ to begin with. Riku couldn't seriously pose any competition.

…could he?

Sora pushed his way back into her thoughts, "No, it's not okay, and I'm really, _really_ sorry." Straining against his seatbelt, he took both of her hands in his and looked into her eyes and said, "Let me make it up to you? I'll take you out tomorrow. And I'll bake you cookies."

Out of the corner of her eye, Kairi saw Riku's eyebrow twitch, and she instinctively curled her fingers tighter around Sora's wrists.

"_Cookies_," Sora repeated, misinterpreting her silence as a rejection, and jutted out his lower lip pleadingly.

"We both know you can't bake," she teased.

"I'll get Riku to help me!" Sora dropped her hands and transferred the puppy dog look onto the silver-haired boy. "You'll help, won't you? Please?"

Riku just smirked, holding out until Sora started pulling on his hair and poking his cheeks to finally laugh and agree, swatting him away. "Fine, but you owe me a favor."

"That's okay," Sora immediately agreed, and this time Kairi could not assuage her building jealousy.

"Don't you have work tomorrow?" she blurted. "You won't have time to bake any cookies."

Riku glanced at her in the rear view mirror, just a quick flicker of aqua eyes, and she could see his mouth tightening slightly. Almost embarrassed, she turned her gaze to the floor of his car, privately very impressed with how clean it was. Even if he was trying to steal her boyfriend, at least he was hygienic. (Even though he totally wasn't trying to steal Sora, she reminded herself, because that would just be ridiculous.)

Oblivious, Sora plowed on with, "Don't worry, I'll get Roxas to cover for me."

"Oh," Kairi said with faked enthusiasm, "cool! Then I'll expect cookies at around six tomorrow, if that's okay?"

"Sure," Sora beamed, just as Riku leaned over to ask, "Who's Roxas?"

"He's my brother," the brunet explained, and then he launched into an involved discussion of the pros and cons of having a fraternal twin while Riku listened, punctuated occasionally by laughs, and Kairi sunk into her seat miserably for the rest of the ride.

-

"So," Riku began conversationally after they'd dropped Kairi off at her house and started heading back toward the university. "You never told me you had a girlfriend. Or a brother." He ran his hands along the steering wheel as he pulled onto the main street, sending Sora a sidelong glance. It was neither accusing nor judgmental, but it still made Sora fidget in his seat.

"Uh, surprise?" Sora said, grinning weakly. "I didn't really think it mattered."

"It doesn't," Riku muttered with a stiff shrug that clearly said it did.

"Am I missing something here?"

"What? No." He subtly glanced at Sora out of the corner of his eye. The brunet was turned towards Riku with an earnest look, fingers clenching and unclenching around his knees.

"It seems like I am." Sora's eyebrows drew together, and he jabbed a finger into Riku's ribs, "What's your deal? Did I do something to piss you off?"

"No. Don't worry about it." He jerked away, swatting Sora's hand back over to his side, and tried diligently to avoid crashing the car.

Sora tapped his fingers against his knees for a second, lips pursed, and finally turned away. "Okay," he mumbled, looking out the window, and bit his lip.

"Hey." Riku pulled to a stop at a red light, turning his full attention to Sora with uncharacteristically softened features. "You're worrying about it. Stop doing that."

He sighed gustily. "I made you mad and I don't even know what I did."

"I'm not mad." The taller boy reached over to flick Sora's cheek with a smirk.

Sora shifted to lean his head against Riku's shoulder, fingers curling in the fabric of his shirt, and whined, "Is it because I made you go with me to pick up Kairi? I'm sorry about that. I'll pay you back for the gas as soon as I get paid. I promise."

He rolled his eyes. "No, it's not."

"Is it because we can't hand out any more membership cards today?"

Riku made a face as he accelerated away from the stoplight and turned the car onto Sora's street. "Um, no. Definitely not that."

"Riku!" The brunet jerked away in offense. "What do you mean, definitely not that? Don't you want to save the crickets?"

"Look, I've got nothing against the crickets. It's just that we already did it for like two hours, and I still have to study for an exam."

"Oh," he said, suddenly quiet again. "So, are you mad about that, then?"

Riku pulled to a stop at the steps leading to Sora's apartment and laughed abruptly. Sora balked, turning to squint at him.

"What? What's so funny?" Riku shook his head, pretending to wipe tears from his eyes, and Sora tugged on his sleeve persistently. "Are you making fun of me?"

"No," Riku chuckled. "Listen. I'm not angry, so will you quit being such a freak and get out of the car?"

"Are you going to come make cookies with me tomorrow?" he pouted.

"Yeah, I'll be here." Riku propped his elbow against the arm rest, grinning, and Sora smiled back.

There was a moment where Sora found himself leaning closer, and Riku almost let his eyes flutter shut before jerking away and blurting, "But seriously, you need to get out of my car. I'm late for my study group."

Sora laughed, shaking the moment off, and tumbled out of the car. Riku couldn't help but feel a pang of regret as he watched Sora's retreating back.

-

Roxas's fingers were cold. He jammed them roughly in his pockets, frowning all the while, because that just seemed to make them worse, and why was it so cold on a tropical island, anyway?

Roxas hated his stupid jacket, because it wasn't doing anything to block out the cold, and he hated his stupid job, because no one wanted to buy a smoothie in the middle of winter, and he _really _hated his stupid brother, because the scatterbrained brunet had dumped his shift on him again. He wasn't used to being so bitter (actually, he kind of was), but he just couldn't _help _feeling miserable when the sky was dark at noon and he was stuck manning a snack shack on an abandoned beach. Damn Sora and his stupid girlfriend and their stupid date. Who the hell asked their twin brother to cover their shift so they could _bake cookies_? Roxas wanted to go home, curl up under a blanket and drink something hot to fight off the sniffles that were quickly threatening to become a full-fledged cold.

Thankfully, it was almost time to close, and if he hurried, he could make it home before it began to rain. He was nearly giddy at the thought, and he wiped his nose with his sleeve, mentally calculating the minutes until he could finally close down. He grabbed the blender, prepared to go into a cleaning frenzy, but when he turned around, there was a boy _right there, _and he was so shocked that he stumbled back into a stack of paper cones and hot nacho cheese, essentially making a mess.

The boy laughed at him – actually openly _laughed_ at his misfortune –and Roxas had to fight back the urge to glare at his first customer of the day. He failed miserably, his eyebrows furrowed and blue eyes narrowed furiously, but he figured it was probably okay, since he wasn't quite sure if anybody could take a glare seriously when the guy giving it was covered in nacho cheese.

"Can I help you?" Roxas asked grumpily, wiping some cheese from his jacket.

"I'd like a smoothie," the boy said, eyes sparkling like something out of a CS Lewis novel, and pointed to the menu. "Paopu's the special today, right?"

"Paopu's the special every day." The blond quirked an eyebrow at the stranger's spiked, almost dinosaur-like red hair and torn black hoodie and said, "It's kind of a girly drink, don't you think?"

"It's a blended drink," the boy replied, amused. "Aren't they all girly?"

_Touché_, Roxas thought.

"You realize it's winter, don't you?" the blond asked unnecessarily, still trying to burn a hole through the guy's head while using a handful of napkins to scrape fluorescent globs of melted cheese from his person.

The red-haired boy ignored both the question and the glare, and also the dirty napkin that Roxas threw in his face mere seconds later. "Do I get one of those little paper umbrellas?"

_Are you kidding me? _Roxas wanted to ask, but instead he merely punched some keys on the register and replied, "No," then half a beat later, "Why is your hair so long?"

"Because I'm awesome." The amused expression was quickly replaced by a frown. "You're kind of rude, aren't you?"

"We're kind of closing," Roxas said, even as he dumped some ice and chunks of paopu into the blender. "I can't believe you want something cold in this weather."

Roxas was the kind of person who could make friends with just about anyone, despite any icy first impressions he may have given. He said what was on his mind with a mix of cynicism and humor and brutal honesty, and people trusted him because of it. At least, that was what he figured, but it might have also been because he was a little bit on the short side, and kind of unimposing with his flippy blonde hair and dinnerplate eyes, so before the drink had finished blending he'd already gleaned that the boy's name was Axel, and that he didn't really like smoothies, or paopu, or umbrellas, really, but he had decided that it was his duty to come over and cheer Roxas up when he spotted him sulking and carrying on and talking to himself in his little seaside shack. Something about karma and divine retribution and needing to find a couple hundred dollars so he could pay his rent.

"Well, at least you had good intentions," Roxas laughed as he poured the wasted smoothie down the sink. He was secretly glad Axel didn't really want it, because he'd sort of messed it up, and Axel would have been drinking more paopu seeds than anything else. "That'll be four dollars."

Axel's eyes widened a little. "You're not seriously going to charge me, are you?"

"Well, okay, I guess not." Roxas shrugged, smirking. "But you'd better buy me a cup of coffee or something for the trouble."

"But that's…" Axel sputtered a little, spreading both hands to either side in what Roxas assumed was a _this-is-what-I-get-for-trying-to-cheer-a-stranger-up_ sort of gesture.

"I'll take that as a yes." The blond grinned, tossing the blender into the sink, and slid over the counter, leaving a yellow-orange trail of cheese in his wake. "Yuffie can clean that up in the morning," he said, all too cheerfully. "So, where are you taking me?"

"I don't know," Axel grumbled, fingering his wallet through his pocket and feeling mightily sorry for himself.

Roxas slid the metal door over the shack and locked it with a key that hung on a bit of frayed blue yarn around his neck. "There's a place right across the street," he suggested. They have good pastries."

"You never said anything about—"

"I'm covered in cheese because of you." Roxas pretended to frown, hustling Axel across the beach and mashing the pedestrian walk button. "You at least oweme a pastry."

"I owe you nothing," Axel insisted, and Roxas casually stepped on his foot.

"Ow, what the—!" Scowling, the redhead reached down to rub at his foot through his shoe. "What was that for?"

"I don't know what you're talking about," Roxas whistled, grabbing Axel by his hood and practically dragging him across the street. The taller boy stumbled alongside him, glaring and jerking himself away once they were safely on the other side. But he was grinning a little, so Roxas wasn't concerned. He herded Axel inside the bakery and drawled, "So, do you think I should I get a muffin or a bagel?"

Axel dug in his heels. "How about nothing?"

Smirking, Roxas tripped him and watched as he fell into line. Literally. Right behind a brown-haired girl with an orange purse. "How about you shut up and pay for my croissant?"

"A croissant?" The redhead stared. "What happened to a muffin or a bagel?"

"The more you argue, the more expensive I get."

"Christ, fine. You may get _one_ croissant," Axel allowed, holding up one slender finger, and dug into his back pocket with his other hand for his wallet. It was obvious he was trying to look grumpy, so Roxas jostled him a bit and grinned, feeling mighty smug when Axel cracked and smirked back.

At the register, Axel practically shoved Roxas behind him as he said, "Can I get a chocolate muffin, please? And whatever he wants." He jerked his thumb behind him to indicate the blond.

"Two chocolate croissants," Roxas said immediately, ducking as Axel took a swipe at his head. He stuck out his tongue and added, "And a coffee, please."

"Um," said the cashier, wiping at some flour on her apron before punching a few keys on the register, "will that be all?"

"Yes," Axel mumbled, looking somewhat annoyed, and pinched Roxas the second the blond's attention strayed. Roxas couldn't have cared less, though, because he'd just scored a free lunch, which he carried to the nearest available table after the cashier gave it to him. Axel followed at a more sedate pace and dropped into the chair across from him.

"You look pleased with yourself," he grumbled, overturning his wallet and shaking it over the table. A single dime rolled out, circling the table until it finally settled on its side in the middle. "You just cleaned me out."

"Didn't you say something about cheering up a stranger?" Roxas grinned through his chocolate croissant, reaching over to slide the dime to his side of the table.

The red-haired boy smacked his hand aside and quickly stuffed the change back into his pocket. "Biggest mistake I've ever made."

The shorter boy laughed, taking a sip from his coffee, and forced down the urge to reach over and steal Axel's muffin, which still sat untouched and pristine on his plate.

"If you want, you can come with me to my brother's apartment." His fingers crept across the table of their own accord. "He said something about making cookies before he dumped his shift on me, and I've made it my personal mission to eat every single one before he gets back from his date. You know, as revenge."

"Cookies?" Axel arched an eyebrow.

"White chocolate," he confided, taking another gulp from his cup, his free hand mere inches from redhead's chocolate muffin. "With those little nuts," he added.

"Is your brother gay or something?"

Roxas choked, then pounded on his chest. "No, actually, but I sort of am."

Axel looked decidedly awkward. "Er—I, uh—not that there's anything _wrong_ with that. I'm just, you know. Little nuts…" He trailed off uncomfortably. Then, spotting Roxas's reaching hand, he attempted to cram the entire muffin into his mouth, spreading his hands to either side apologetically. An ocean of crumbs tumbled down the front of his shirt and onto the table.

"I haven't been hitting on you or anything," Roxas said, rolling his eyes at Axel's antics. "You know. So you don't have to be freaked out."

Axel tried to say something, but half of his muffin fell out of his mouth and onto the table. The blond gave the mess a sad sort of look, eyebrows knitting together in a way that said, _I could eat that, if I really wanted… _but he shook his head instead, using his index finger to pick at some leftover chocolate on his plate.

"Thanks for the coffee," Roxas said, offering a small smile, "but I'd better go. I've got two dozen cookies to eat, and…" he glanced at his watch, "Only half an hour to do it in."

Axel swallowed the rest of his muffin, eyes watering a little, and grabbed his bag off of the floor. "You mean we, right? You totally owe me cookies after making me buy you lunch."

Roxas sat up a little straighter in his seat. "Yeah, that's what I said. We."

The ride to Sora's apartment was excruciatingly awkward, mostly because all Roxas had was his bike and Axel insisted on riding on the handlebars. It, predictably, did not turn out well, because the red-haired boy was as tall as some of the buildings in the area and Roxas was as small as some of the dogs, so they nearly smashed into three telephone poles and fell over twice before they switched places at Roxas's insistence and Axel's great dismay.

"I feel dumb," Roxas muttered, shifting his weight and clutching the sides of the handlebars. "Hey, turn left here—_take it slow!" _He nearly tumbled off and onto the pavement when Axel made an unnecessarily sharp turn.

"Sorry." Axel gave the back of his head an amused grin, then purposely swerved a little to get a reaction.

Roxas jerked, paled, and then made a mental note to _punch the goddamn shit out of Axel _when they got to Sora's place. Pastries or not, he was going to pay for that little maneuver.

"It's here," the blond grunted stonily, hopping off of the handlebars and pulling back to punch Axel's arm.

"Shit," Axel hissed, clutching his shoulder. He looked like he was about to complain, but when he spotted Roxas's expression, he shrugged and grinned sheepishly. "I guess I deserved that."

"You bet you did," Roxas snorted and stomped off toward the front door of his twin's apartment.

Once inside, Roxas was surprised to find that Sora was still home, sitting on the counter with a large red bowl propped in his lap and chatting with an unfamiliar silver-haired boy.

"You're home?" Roxas asked after a pause, glancing from the bowl to the new boy and finally to the key in his hand. "Whatever. I brought a friend over."

"Way to just let yourself in," Sora snorted, licking some batter from his thumb. "And yeah, I'm home. I _live _here, unlike you."

"What, a guy can't visit his brother?" The blond shut the door behind Axel and peered into Sora's bowl. Mmm, white chocolate chip with macadamia nuts. "You gonna ask me how your shift went?"

"You gonna stop breaking into my apartment to steal my food—" He broke off suddenly to hiss, "Cricket! Watch it!"

"What?" Roxas glanced down to his feet, where the silver-haired boy was stooping to catch a cricket in a plastic cup.

"Got him," the boy said triumphantly, tipping the bug into a little fish bowl and giving Roxas a little smirk. "So you're Sora's brother?"

Roxas pointedly ignored him, turning to his brother. "I thought you had a date tonight, Sora."

"I do," he said. "You didn't take off work early or anything, did you?"

"Uh, no," Roxas scoffed. "I've been off for like an hour."

"What?" Sora blanched, yanking Riku's arm over to stare at his watch. "Oh, man." He shoved the red bowl into the silver-haired boy's hands and frantically began to search for the phone. "Oh man, oh man, Kairi's gonna _kill _me."

Roxas smothered a laugh in his fist and took the distraction as a chance to snag the bowl from Riku. "I'll just take this," he stage-whispered.

"Don't touch that," Sora snapped as his brother began to spoon cookie dough into his mouth. "Riku, don't let him—_Roxas, that's sick!"_

Axel stood by the front door, arms crossed, and tried not to laugh when Sora took a flying leap onto Roxas's back, sending the bowl clattering across the tile and into a wall.

"Um," Riku said eloquently, eyebrows raised.

"Hey," Axel said, raising one hand in a two-fingered greeting, "I'm Axel."

"Riku," he replied, picking the bowl of cookie dough off of the floor and offering the wooden spoon to the redhead. "This might take awhile. You hungry?"

"I'm okay." Axel propped a shoulder against the wall, smirking. "So, how'd you meet, uh…"

"Sora?" Riku grinned. "He fell into a pond, so I bought him some crickets. How'd you meet Roxas?"

"He fell into some nacho cheese, so I bought him a croissant."

"Wow," he laughed. "So they really _are _related."

There was a loud thunk, and the boys turned to find Roxas splayed out on the floor, howling and clutching the back of his head. "What the hell, Sora," he hissed in pain.

"What the hell yourself! Look what you did!" The brunet was pointing to the wall, where the AC knob had been snapped off. "Tidus is going to_ freak out."_

"Dude, forget about Tidus," Roxas muttered. "What about _Kairi_?"

"Crap!" He raised both hands to clutch at his hair. "I almost forgot. Riku, why didn't you say anything?"

Awkwardly, Riku spread his hands out on either side and shrugged helplessly. "Sorry?"

"Oh man, I'm _dead_," Sora moaned. "No way is Kairi going to forgive this." Desperately, he snapped his fingers at his twin and said, "Roxas! Lend me your phone."

Roxas obediently handed it over, asking, "Do you think she'll dump you?"

When Sora didn't respond, he inched a little closer. "Hey, Sora. Do you think she'll—"

"Shhh," the brunet waved his hand importantly. "Hold on, I'm trying to dial her number," he muttered, carefully pushing buttons with his thumb, his tongue poking out of the corner of his mouth.

"Well, what's taking so long?" his twin snorted. "You'd better call her fast, she's probably freaking out."

"Shut up, Roxas, you're just making me feel worse," Sora grumbled, holding his brother's cell phone to his ear. He almost winced when someone picked up and ventured out with a soft, "Kairi?"

"Tell her your clock is broken," Roxas suggested.

"Um," Sora said, pushing his twin's face away, and blushed a little as he spoke into the receiver, "Oh, okay. I'm sorry, ma'am. Have a good night," he added the last part hastily, hitting the end button, and snapped the phone shut with a depressed look.

"Who was that?" the blond asked.

Sora mumbled something unintelligible and looked away.

Roxas blinked. "What?"

The brunet bristled a little. "I said it was a wrong number," he said, louder this time.

"Just try it again," Roxas pressed, not at all deterred by the slightly angry expression his twin was wearing. "Maybe you just entered it wrong."

Against the wall, Axel shifted to cross his arms, looking unreasonably amused, and leaned over to ask Riku, "He doesn't know his own girlfriend's phone number?"

Riku shrugged. "Apparently not."

They both watched as Sora dialed the number again and, judging by the look on his face, got the same woman. He half-fell, half-sat down on the couch, dropping the phone to the carpet, and buried his face in his hands. A moment later, Roxas slid onto the cushion next to him and silently put his arm around him.

From his spot on the other side of the room, Axel locked eyes with Riku and whispered, "You knew he was late, didn't you."

Riku jerked his head up in surprise at the unexpected comment, unsure if he'd heard correctly. "What?"

The redhead just smirked. "Nothing, forget it," he said, and pushed off against the wall to walk over to the couch where Sora and Roxas were huddled together in a commiserating lump. As tactfully as possible, he tapped the blond on the shoulder and said, "As much fun as it is to watch your twin have a mental breakdown, I'm feeling kind of awkward, so I'm gonna go now."

Roxas was too distracted by his twin to be annoyed. "Okay," he said, waving absently over his shoulder. "Nice meeting you, Axel. Thanks for the coffee."

"Yeah, no problem," the redhead laughed, already moving toward the door. "See ya," he said, and waved casually on his way out.

Sora didn't even seem to notice. "Oh, god," he eventually moaned into his hands. "Kairi is going to hate me. What should I do?"

Roxas just shrugged weakly.

"You should go over there," Riku suggested, moving over to them to claim a spot on the arm of Sora's couch. The brunet looked up at him in surprise, to which Riku smiled encouragingly and put his hand on the smaller boy's shoulder, a light-fingered, comforting warmth. "You're already late, so pick up some flowers. Tell her the cookies were a flop, and that's why you're late, and then just… hope for the best. Okay?"

"But what if she's still pissed?" he asked, although his shoulders had straightened, and he didn't look quite so lost anymore.

"You'll be fine," Riku said, and put his arm all the way around Sora's shoulders, pulling him into a sort of sideways hug. Roxas eyed them carefully, noting the minutes ticking by while Riku continued to calm Sora down. When Sora still hadn't noticed that ten precious minutes had passed, Roxas narrowed his eyes and privately decided that he and his brother might need to have a little talk. Or maybe Riku was the one he should be speaking with…

He'd figure that out later, he supposed. Right now, he had some cookie dough to eat, and a twin to comfort.

-

**A/N**: Please review. :) We've kinda noticed that the reviews for this story don't quite match up to its alerts or favorites, so we'd really love to hear from you lurkers out there. It doesn't take much effort to click a little button and type a few words, so don't be shy.


	4. Chapter 4

**The Cricket Revolution**

_In which Riku lacks sleep and Roxas has a revelation on his brother's behalf._

-

Sora was not having a good night. After Riku and Roxas successfully cleaned him up and stuffed him into what the blond deemed 'apology clothes' (which apparently consisted of an ironed button-up shirt and pants that weren't jeans), Sora trudged over to Kairi's to beg for forgiveness.

It was harder than he'd expected, and he hadn't expected much to begin with, so that was really saying something. Kairi was like a giant stone statue, cold and unmoving, looming over him with a swarm of guilt. Which was a total exaggeration, of course, because Kairi was actually lithe and petite and very sweet, and all she really did was cross her arms and frown and sigh a lot. But Sora almost would have preferred a big creepy statue slamming him over the head with something, because at least an inanimate object wouldn't have made him feel so incredibly crappy about himself.

"I can't help it," he said eventually with a defeated slump of his shoulders, and tossed the bouquet of flowers Kairi had rejected at the door onto the counter. "I like making new friends, and I like helping people, even if they're crickets."

"So," she said, jutting out her chin and gripping her arms, "crickets and someone you met two days ago—"

"Three days ago, actually," Sora interrupted, and promptly gave himself a swift mental kick in the ass, because according to Kairi's expression, that had _not_ been the correct thing to say.

Miraculously, Kairi managed not to scream. "So, the winter population of crickets on the island and a guy you only met three days ago are more important than the commitments you've made to your girlfriend," here, she saw that Sora was opening his mouth to defend himself, but she held up her hand and pressed on, "who also happens to be your best friend, whom you've known nearly your entire life?"

"Kairi, you can't put yourself above an entire species," he attempted to joke. "I mean, you're great and all, but—"

"It's winter!" She tossed her hands in the air in sheer frustration. "I don't know if you've noticed, but there are no crickets right now. They're, I don't know, _hibernating, _or whatever it is crickets do until summer." Sighing, she wiped at her eyes and gave him a hurt look. "You're ditching me for a cause that isn't even in season."

After that, he tried to reason with her that it was _her_ cause, too – look, she even had a membership card to prove it! – and maybe she wouldn't be so upset about him spending time on it if she'd just help him, but she didn't feel like listening. She didn't feel like doing anything, really, except politely kicking him out after an hour of arguing.

"I just don't have the energy to fight anymore tonight," she mumbled as she walked him to his car, the lilies he'd bought for her still on the kitchen counter. Privately, he thought that was a pretty good sign – one, she liked him enough to walk him out, and two, if she'd wanted to dump him, she would have calmly packed all the things he'd left in her apartment over the years into a box for him to take home, starting with the damn flowers.

So with that in mind, he decided not to push his luck any more that night, and kissed her gently on the cheeks, brushing his fingers through her soft hair with one last muttered apology.

"I'm really sorry, Kairi," he said sincerely. "Drop by work tomorrow if you feel like talking, okay? I'm working most of the day."

She just gave him a sad look and closed the door. Which was more than he'd expected, actually, so he didn't complain.

So now he found himself wandering around campus at what was probably close to midnight, after a quick stop at his apartment where he had unsuccessfully tried to sleep and possibly driven Tidus certifiably insane. Apparently, checking the phone every five seconds to ensure that it was working properly was pretty damn annoying. But Sora had to be sure, just in case Kairi decided to call.

On a whim (but really mostly because he was already on campus), Sora decided to see if he could find his way back to Riku's dorm without getting lost. Not to visit him, he told himself, because it was pretty late and it most likely wasn't cool to just drop over uninvited and unannounced. Kairi'd had a point there, at least – he'd only known Riku for three days, and it was probably kind of weird that he'd hung out with him almost constantly since they'd met. But he was bored, and what better things did he have to do with his time than test his memory to see if he could accurately find Riku's dorm in the middle of the night?

He entertained himself on his journey by kicking a rock, a little white one he'd picked up on the side of the road by the university's medical library. Sometimes he kicked it too far, and he had to run to catch up to it and pick it out of a patch of grass or a crack in the sidewalk. He was rather disappointed when he accidentally kicked it underneath the crappy double doors of Riku's dorm, and he promptly decided to go in after it.

It had nothing to do with dropping by Riku's room to see if he was still up. Really.

-

"Sora?" the silver-haired boy asked, blinking in the sudden light of the hallway. Behind him, the room was almost completely dark, save for the lonely glow of his laptop. "What are you doing here?"

Shrugging, Sora kicked at the carpet with the tip of a yellow shoe, watching Riku's sleepy expression morph into one of concern. The taller boy reached out to brace his hand on the doorframe and leaned in to squint at the brunet's face. "Hey, are you okay?"

"M'fine," Sora responded immediately, even though he was quickly becoming aware that he was anything but fine, because Kairi had kicked him out and Tidus was starting to hate him and his best friend was some guy he barely knew who had bought him crickets. Actually, his life kind of sucked except for said guy, whom Kairi'd had the nerve to imply he'd been hanging out with too much.

Luckily for him, Riku was damn perceptive, because he took Sora's hand and pulled him inside his dark dorm room, assumedly so Sora wouldn't have to have this conversation in the very public hallway.

He let go as soon as they were inside, but did not move away, standing close enough to Sora that the brunet couldn't decide whether it was comfortable or invasive.

"No, you're not," Riku said, and his attention was focused completely on smaller boy, aqua eyes only half-open with fatigue but still somehow showing enough kindness to assuage Sora's building anxiety.

"You're right," Sora admitted after he managed to unstick his tongue from the roof of his mouth, where it had somehow glued itself in dismay as the weight of the situation began to settle on his shoulders. Kairi had never closed her door to him before. He'd really fucked up this time, and he was a bad boyfriend, he was going to lose Kairi, and he didn't know what to do, what to say, how to make it better…

Looking up into Riku's eyes, Sora decided that at that moment he didn't really care what Kairi thought of how much time he spent with Riku, because god_dammit_, right now he really needed a freaking hug.

Without thinking, he hooked his arms around Riku's neck, which actually turned out to be fairly awkward, because Riku was a lot taller than him and he had to stand on his tiptoes just to get his arms around the other boy. And if the strangled noises Riku made were any indication, Sora was pretty sure he was choking him, too.

"Sorry," the brunet mumbled sheepishly and pulled his hands away, but Riku surprised him by putting both of his arms around Sora's shoulders and pulling him flush against his chest, safe and warm. Sora blinked in a pleased sort of astonishment before relaxing into the considerably less awkward embrace.

"You don't have to be sorry," Riku said. "I'm guessing things didn't go so well with Kairi?"

"She didn't want the flowers," was the first thing Sora could think to say, muffled against Riku's chest, and he discovered that he was beginning to feel surprisingly numb about the whole thing. Or maybe Riku was just easy to talk to, for some reason. Either way, he managed to continue, "She's jealous that all I do is hang out with you and save crickets all day. Like crickets aren't important." He busied himself by picking at a loose thread on the sleeve of Riku's white pajama shirt. "It's like she forgot who I was while she was away. Like I haven't always done stuff like this."

"Stuff like fundraisers for the well-being of the island's cricket population?"

Sora actually managed a laugh. "Um, no. But like, when we were kids, we always did stuff like this. We ran a day spa for the neighborhood dogs and bought popsicles for random strangers in the summer and tried to open a shoe store full of sandals we sewed out of plastic grocery bags."

"Wow," was all Riku could think to say, fingering the soft hair at the nape of Sora's neck. "That's, uh. Vaguely ridiculous. Did the shoes ever melt to the pavement?"

"Don't know." Sora twisted away from Riku's hands, reaching up to touch the back of his neck lightly, and collapsed into a chair. "No one ever bought any. Where's your roommate?"

Riku shrugged, moving his own chair to face opposite Sora, and sat down in it. "Leon? He said something about blond motherfuckers and stormed off with his Calculus text. He has that class with Cloud, so I'm assuming they're studying for an exam or something."

"Together?" Sora quirked an eyebrow. "He doesn't seem like the kinda guy who would take help from anyone. Especially an RA."

The taller boy laughed a little, tilting his chair back to balance dangerously on one leg. "Yeah, I'd say that's normally the case, but I saw his last test score."

"That bad?"

"_Hopeless." _Riku smirked, and then slammed back down on all four legs. "But that's off topic. Are you going to tell me what's wrong?"

Sora's shoulders immediately slumped, and he looked down to fiddle with the hem of his shirt. "Just. Everything sucks."

"Oh, come on." Riku nudged Sora's foot with a socked toe. "It can't be that—"

"_Everything _sucks," Sora's breath exploded from his lungs in a rush. "I'm gonna lose my job, and my girlfriend, and everyone hates me, and my cause isn't—it isn't even in _season_."

"Well, that shirt looks very nice on you, at least," Riku offered up after a long silence.

"Thank you," Sora said, smoothing out the wrinkles self-consciously. "It's actually my brother's."

"I know. I was there when he made you try it on."

The brunet coughed into his fist in embarrassment. "Oh, right. Sorry."

With an amused look, the silver-haired boy murmured, "Don't worry about it," and turned slightly to the side to tap a few keys on his laptop.

"What'cha working on?" Sora asked, leaning forward to peek over the other boy's shoulder.

"English essay," he explained. "My teacher's a bit of a sadist, I think. She assigned me Virginia Woolf, like I have any understanding of feminism."

"Um." Sora fumbled for a reply. "Yeah. That sucks, I guess."

Glancing at him over his shoulder, Riku took in the still somewhat pinched expression and nervous posture and ventured out with, "Is it going to bother you if I work on this?"

"No," Sora blurted, then winced. "Well, I mean. No. But is it going to bother _you_ if I stay?"

"Not at all," said the taller boy with a soft, kind smile. "Stay as long as you like. Just get out of Leon's chair when he comes back."

"Okay," the brunet laughed, dragging his chair next to Riku's, and scooted so close their thighs were nearly touching. "Thanks for letting me stay, Riku."

"Not a problem," he said.

-

"Riku."

Leon awoke the silver-haired the next day, shaking his shoulder with one hand. He looked concerned, eyes narrowed and red-rimmed, hair tangled into messy clumps. He was still wearing the same girly fur-lined jacket and leather pants that he had been wearing the night before, so he'd obviously been up with Cloud all night. Riku squinted through blurry eyes and decided on second thought that he was probably angry. Leon had exactly two facial expressions, and it was difficult to tell exactly what he was feeling at any given time.

"Mrrrr, what is it?" he mumbled, still half-asleep, and rubbed at his face with both hands.

"There's a kid passed out on my desk," Leon informed him stonily.

Oh. Definitely angry, then. Riku sat up a little straighter to peer across the room where Sora had fallen asleep on his roommate's desk, his cheek pillowed adorably in the crook of his arm, brown hair mussed every which way. Riku himself had apparently nodded off in his desk chair with his face mashed up against his laptop's keyboard, if the solid block of _g_'s on the Word document open on the screen was anything to go by. He scrolled up past what appeared to be eight hours of sleeping on the same key in something akin to disbelief, relieved to discover that he'd at least finished a decent portion of his essay before falling asleep.

"Riku," Leon's flinty voice broke into his thoughts. "Kid. Passed out. Explain?"

"That's Sora," he said once he remembered how to work his vocal chords. "He fell asleep."

Leon's eyelid twitched. "I can see that. But what's he doing on _my_ desk?"

"I was using mine," Riku pointed out, jabbing his thumb at the desk on which his laptop was resting. "You could've woken him up, you know."

"I tried that," the tall brunet scoffed.

What Riku wanted to say was something along the lines of, _Well, you obviously didn't try hard enough_, but what he _actually_ said was, "I'll take care of it," while he slowly wiped his face with his hand.

"Good," Leon muttered, storming around the room, picking up a book here and there and stripping off his girly jacket. "When you wake him up, get him out, because I'm going to sleep."

"Going to sleep?" Riku repeated blearily as he slowly unfolded himself from his chair, popping his aching back as he went. He was _never_ sleeping in that chair ever again, that was for sure. He glanced down at his watch, but it wasn't there, so he asked, "What time is it?"

"Almost noon," Leon replied gruffly, then, sensing Riku's follow-up question, continued in an almost exasperated voice, "I just finished my exam, and I stayed up all night studying, so now I am tired." He drew the blinds shut with a jerk.

"_Noon_?" Riku looked pale and on the verge of freaking out. "Oh, shit, I have like two hours left to finish this essay."

"Noon?" a smaller, squeakier voice echoed from the fuzzy brunet pile on Leon's desk as Sora finally resurfaced, looking tired and frazzled. "Are you _serious_?"

"Welcome to the world of the living," Leon said. "It's 12:02. Get off my desk."

"_Crap_," Sora hissed, flinging himself from Leon's chair, and threw the silver-haired boy across the room a frantic, wild-eyed look. "I'm late for work."

_I'm late for not failing English_, Riku thought, but instead he said, "Do you need a ride?"

"No, but something to wear would be nice." The little brunet looked down at his outfit from the night before. "Roxas would kill me if I spilled fruit juice on his stuff."

"True," Riku said, and, smiling, went to pick out the smallest-fitting clothes he had. When he handed them to Sora, their fingers brushed, lingering, and Riku pulled his hand away quickly. "Just give them back to me later, okay?"

"Absolutely," Sora gushed, pausing just long enough to hug Riku tightly, the same warm embrace from last night that was quickly becoming familiar, and flashed him a megawatt smile. "Good luck on your essay."

"Thanks," the silver-haired boy murmured, a little surprised Sora had remembered, and waved at the retreating brunet figure as he dashed out of the room and into the hallway. "Have a good day at work."

-

Roxas alternated between blowing on his fingertips and flexing his fingers around the handlebars of his bicycle to keep them warm as he slowly pedaled his way over to the snack shack. He spotted Sora inside, chatting with a slim blonde girl who was staring down at an index card in her hand with a small, amused smile.

"Namine!" Roxas rocketed himself off of the bike, which clattered noisily on the cement, and ran the last few feet to the shack in excitement. "What are you doing here?"

Her head jerked up, and she just managed to dodge Roxas's high five of greeting, which undoubtedly would have been forceful enough to knock her to the ground. "I'm just picking on Sora for screwing things up with Kairi _again_," she said in a soft yet mischievous voice.

"Hey," Sora objected, but wilted under Roxas and Namine's combined scowls. "…I guess I did screw things up a little."

"Whatever, Sora." Roxas leaned over the counter, snapping his fingers impatiently and holding out his hand. "You said you had something for me? This had better be good, because I was kind of content to not leave the house today."

The brunet nodded, a grin breaking across his face, and crouched to pull something from under the counter while Namine subtly slid her CCA card into the trash. His sleeves were a little too big and they flopped over his wrists, dangerously close to some mustard on the counter, and he pushed the material up to his elbows as he rose to brandish a plain white note, folded neatly in two. "Yuffie found this taped to the door when she got to work today. She was also sort of pissed about some cheese spill, which she originally blamed _me_ for, thank you very much, and she wanted me to tell you that she's going to report you to Wakka if you don't pay her off."

Roxas quirked an eyebrow and grabbed the piece of folded notebook paper that Sora was offering. _Rocksis was_ scribbled across the front, and when he flipped it open, he was surprised to find a phone number written inside. "What's this?"

"It looks like a phone number," Namine murmured, peering over his shoulder. "Do you have an admirer, Roxas?"

"Whoever it is can't even spell my name right," he snorted, but carefully tucked the paper into his pocket anyway. Sora privately noted that he looked a little pink around the ears and decided not to comment.

"Do you want a shake while you're here?" he asked instead, grinning at his brother and gesturing grandly to the blender. "We just got in a new shipment of fruit."

"And I so enjoyed the week-old frozen stuff," Roxas said with a matching sarcastic smirk. "But no thanks, I'm not really hungry. What time do you get off today?"

Whipping around to look at the clock, the brunet hummed thoughtfully. "I dunno, in about an hour and a half? Why?" He tilted his head curiously.

"Nothing big," Roxas said, unconsciously sticking his hand in his pocket and clutching the notebook paper. It was undoubtedly from Axel, and Axel made him think of the night before, and the night _before_ made him think of a certain talk he needed to have with a few certain people. "I just wanted to talk. Is it cool if I hang around and walk with you back to your apartment later?"

Looking mildly befuddled, Sora nodded, then broke into an unexpected grin. "Sure, but you have to be my guinea pig today. I'm working on a recipe for a brand new shake!"

"Great," the blond groaned, and reluctantly resigned himself to his fate.

-

"So, Sora," Roxas grandly began approximately two hours later, plopping himself down on the brunet's couch as he attempted to shovel an entire bag of Lays chips into his mouth at once. "What's with that guy you're always with now?"

"You mean Riku?" he asked, blinking as he took off his snack shack hat and tossed it vaguely toward his room.

Roxas watched it bounce off Tidus's door and idly brushed a few crumbs from where they'd fallen on his shirt. "Yeah, whatever his name is. What's his deal?"

"Umm, nothing?" Sora said, kicking his shoes off in two completely different directions while simultaneously stooping in front of the open pantry to rummage around for something decent to eat. "Why?"

"Well," the blond wiped some salt from the potato chips on his black slacks and turned to watch his brother over the back of the couch, "I don't trust him, is all."

Sora didn't seem to care much about what Roxas thought of Riku, because he was busy unscrewing a jar of peanut butter and sniffing it tentatively. "Can this go bad?" he asked instead of responding to Roxas's statement.

"No," Roxas snapped, even though he had no idea whether or not peanut butter actually went bad, annoyed that Sora wasn't taking him seriously. "Did you hear what I said?"

"Yep," his brother chirped, grabbing a spoon from a drawer, and walked over to claim the couch cushion next to Roxas, still holding the peanut butter.

"Don't you care?" Roxas pressed.

"Not really," the brunet said cheerfully, and spooned a bite of peanut butter into his mouth. He instantly made a face. "Um. Are you sure this can't go bad? It tastes kinda…crunchy."

Rolling his eyes, Roxas pointed at the label on the jar. "That's because it's supposed to be. It's crunchy style, genius. And what do you mean, you don't care? Riku is creepy! You should totally care about what I have to say."

Rolling his eyes, Sora spooned more peanut butter into his mouth and swallowed. "Roxas, really. I appreciate your concern, but you're totally crazy. Riku is awesome, and I'm not going to ditch him just because you unfairly think he's creepy."

"It's not unfair," Roxas insisted, dramatically tossing the bag of potato chips onto the coffee table. "He's always perving on you."

Sora nearly choked on his peanut butter and instantly began coughing, eyes watering, and thumped himself on the chest. Once he had recovered, he looked at Roxas with almost impossibly blue eyes and gaped. "He's _what_?"

"Um," Roxas said, staring in disbelief. "You mean you never noticed before?"

"No," Sora squeaked, dropping the spoon and peanut butter to pull at his hair. "Holy crap. Are you serious?"

"Yeah. Why do you think Kairi's so freaky jealous all the time?"

At the mention of Kairi, Sora visibly wilted and sank into the couch. "She's mad because I _suck_."

"Oh, for the love of god," Roxas mumbled, scooting over to put his arm around Sora's shoulders. "Look, I'm sorry I brought it up. You don't suck, okay? You're awesome, and Kairi knows that, and she'll come around eventually." He patted Sora's elbow and grinned. "How'd things go last night, by the way? You were in a pretty good mood when I saw you."

"It was awful," Sora groaned, slumping even deeper into the couch, and frowned at the floor. "She yelled at me and told me I was a bad boyfriend and kicked me out."

Roxas stared. "Wow, that's pretty harsh. What'd you do after that? You were so cheerful this morning."

Sora shrugged. "I went over to Riku's and spent the night and—Roxas, what are you doing?"

"I'm gonna kill him," the blond hissed as he jumped to his feet, rolling up his sleeves. "He didn't touch you, did he? I swear, if he took advantage of you, I'll—"

"Roxas, no!" Grabbing his brother by the collar of his shirt, he yanked him back onto the couch and held him down. "Stop it. You're wrong about him, okay? Even if Riku liked me, he wouldn't be a creepy pervert about it. He's a good person."

"You hardly know him," Roxas growled, "You trust him more than _me_, and you met him barely four days ago."

"Not you too," Sora groaned, falling forward to bang his head repeatedly on the coffee table. "Why is everybody acting like I like Riku better than them?"

"Because you _do_," Roxas pointed out and folded his arms across his chest. "You hang out with him every day, and he's all you talk about, and you care more about him than your own…" And then he trailed off, eyes widening, and began to look distinctly uncomfortable.

"My own what?" Sora grumbled, hitting his head one more time before sitting up to rub the growing red spot on his forehead.

"Um, nothing," Roxas said as he abruptly climbed to his feet. "Hey, listen. I've gotta go, okay?"

"What? Why?" Sora rose with him, blinking.

"I just have to talk to someone," Roxas promised, and blew out of the room like a storm.

-

**A/N**: Wow. If we'd known all we had to do to get reviews was ask for them, we would have been begging shamelessly from the start. …Nah, we're just kidding. But thanks a _lot_ for that _incredible_ response! We appreciate it more than you'll ever know, and we sincerely hope this was worth the wait. :3


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